This invention relates to fishing spears and, more particularly, to a novel spear-head and shank assembly for use in spearfishing
The sport of spearfishing is well known and the prior art is replete with different types of fishing spears. It is typical that the fish spear be attached to a line or cable such that once a fish has been speared, both the spear and the fish may be retrieved by gathering in the cable. During the retreival process, it is not unusual that the spear may become disengaged from the fish, in the absence of means to retain the speared fish on the spear to await manual removal of the spear from the fish. This is accomplished, in many of the apparatus, by a barb arrangement wherein the barbs are held within the spear-head in an unopen position, the barbs triggering into an open position upon impact. Examples of such fish spears can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,036,396, issued to Swails on Aug. 31, 1959 (barbs 28, moveable by loaded spring 32) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,024,665, issued to Payne on May 24, 1977 (scissor-like blades 11 and 12, including barbs 22-29). Although the barb arrangements of Swails and Payne are manually retractable for easier removal of the fish from the spear, the barbs can cause significant tearing of the fish, especially if the portion of the spear containing the barbs does not completely exit through to the other side of the target.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a barbless spear assembly meant for spearing fish of relatively small size such that, upon firing the spear upon a target, the spear-head of the invention will penetrate the body of the fish and exit through to the other side of the fish, the spear-head being pivotally attached to the shank and configured such that the spear-head will pivot from a normal, striking position to an engaged position upon pulling the spear toward one's self via an attached cable.
It is another object of the invention to provide a fish spear assembly which includes a smoothly contoured, pointed spear-head on its distal end which will easily penetrate a fish, including automatically actuable means preventing premature or unintended withdrawal of the spear after it has pass through a fish.
It is further object of the present invention to provide a fish spear including a spear-head which is pivotally moveable on the shank to prevent withdrawal of the spear, and is easily pivoted to a release position to allow simple and quick disengagement from the pierced target.
Other objects will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.